The Canadian province of Ontario is planning to expand its immigration program by doubling the number of candidates it is allowed to nominate for permanent residence in Canada. The province is allowed to put forward its preferences via the Canadian Provincial Nominee Program. Ontario would ideally prefer to boost its allocation as part of the PNP or the Provincial Nominee Program. While the number is 6,650 this year, it will become 13,300 in 2022 if the province succeeds its mission.
Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s Immigration Minister, has placed its formal request through a letter that he sent to Marco Mendicino, his new federal counterpart. The PNP is managed by the Federal authorities, and it grants permission to participating territories and provinces to submit their nominations. Each province can nominate a fixed number of Economic-Class immigration candidates every year, giving them an advantage on their journey to Canadian permanent residence.
The allocation of a province under the PNP is fixed based on the program’s annual admissions targets. These targets are established by the IRCC or the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada. The admission target for the PNP this year was 61,000 new permanent residents. This marked an increase of 6,000 as compared to the 2018 target, which was 55,000. In 2020, the admissions target under the PNP program is likely to be 67,800.
The last few years have witnessed the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), Ontario’s component of the PNP, receiving the maximum allocation when compared to other participating territories and provinces. There were 6,650 nominations in 2019, and that was an increase of just 50 as compared to 2018. An extra 700 nominations were granted last week and that brought the 2019 allocation to 7,350.
According to the OINP, the province's allocation over the last several years has not been sufficient to meet the actual labor needs of the province.